The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

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Friday, November 16, 2012

Read the article in Italiano (translated by Yehudit Weisz, edited by Angelo Pezzana)

Muhammad As’ad Bayoudh al-Tamimi is a Palestinian columnist living in Jordan. In the past he has often clearly expressed the opinions of the man on the Arab street. Following the interview that Muhammad Abbas gave to Channel 2 (aired on Nov. 2, 2012), in which he gave up the right to return to live in Safed, Israel rejoiced that Abu Mazen had surrendered the "right of return" in the name of the Palestinian people. Abbas himself denied doing so afterward, but "the horse had escaped from the barn".

In response to the surrender of Mahmoud Abbas, al-Tamimi wrote the following article, entitled: "Abbas, get lost, Palestine belongs to us and we will only replace it with Paradise". The title lends itself to two short explanatory comments: 1. The expression "Get lost" was the slogan that accompanied the "Arab Spring". It was the peoples' call to bin Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, Qadhaffi in Libya, Saleh in Yemen and Asad in Syria. What al-Tamimi hints at is that Abbas has no more legitimacy as a leader than they did, and therefore his future will be like theirs.

2. Paradise in this context is death, meaning "Palestine or Death".Below is the article (with my comments, M.K.)

The recent declarations of the person who is called "Abu Mazen" (whose real name is, M.K.) Mahmoud Rida Abbas Mirza, and is of Iranian origin, appeared on the 95th anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration, according to which "Great Britain" awarded Palestine - the blessed land (the alleged name for Palestine based on the Qur'an, M.K.), our homeland, the land of Islam - to the Jews whose rights to the land don't even amount to the weight of a mustard seed. The declarations (of Abbas, M.K.) are a confirmation of the promise of Balfour and are a great betrayal on the part of anyone who claims to be a leader of the Palestinian people and its legitimate representative, and I don't know where he who is nicknamed "Abu Mazen" (a mocking reference, M.K.) got his legitimacy and who brought him to be a leader.

The Palestinian people know how this man with Iranian roots and Bahai faith (a religion that originates from Islam, M. K.) a Safavid (a member of an Iranian dynasty, M.K.) was brought in, to sit on the neck and the back of the Palestinian people, in order to fulfill the role of faithful watchdog, and the one who brought him is Sharon who used tanks to impose his leadership as prime minister of the virtual authority in order to usurp forcefully the authorities of Arafat, who refused to surrender the right of return and Jerusalem, just as he refused to come to a historical agreement with the Jews. Therefore he (Sharon, M.K.) had no choice but to get rid of Arafat. Sharon began a war against the Palestinian people and invaded the West Bank in 2000, ruined the Muqata'a in Ramallah where Arafat was holed up, proclaimed Abu Mazen as prime minister and the spy Muhammad Dahlan as minister of the interior, and these things cleared the way for the physical elimination of Arafat after they eliminated him politically by the order of Sharon... and after these two served the role that Sharon assigned to them, a disagreement broke out between them about who would inherit the leadership, and Abu Mazen won with the support of the Jews, which he got because of his ideological closeness to them.

This is why he fulfilled the task that was imposed upon him with complete faithfulness, since this mission is to oppress the Palestinian people, to tyrannize it and to humiliate it in the name of the thieving entity (a name for Israel, M.K.), because the Jewish entity, ever since its inception, has never enjoyed as much peace and tranquility as it does now, in the time of Mahmoud Rida Abbas Mirza, which proves how much he hates the Palestinian people, and how faithful he is to the Jews. Whether there is a reason for it or not, he always emphasizes his faithfulness to them by requesting friendship with them, flattering them, satisfying their desires and submitting to them. He again says with the deepest disgrace, humiliation, sordidness and weakness, that we have no choice but to surrender and enter into negotiations on the terms of the surrender.

He enraged the Palestinians with his declaration, whether they live in Palestine or in the diaspora, because he said that he does not want to return to Safed. According to Abbas, he has no permission to return to it and to live there because Palestine is only within the borders of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, forever.

But he is not Palestinian at all and he is not from Safed, because he is of Iranian origins, from the city of Bandar Khamin, the city that his grandfather - the founder of the Bahai religion, Rida ‘Ullah Mirza – left to come to Palestine in the year 1882. Can a Palestinian - even if he is a traitor - say that I have no right to live in my homeland if I return to it?

In the interview he also said that he will not allow another intifada to break out against the Jewish entity or to use weapons against it as long as he sits in his chair. When he said this he pointed to the chair on which he was sitting, but this is not a chair, but rather a khazuk (a knife that is stuck in his flesh, M.K.). He also emphasized that he will take only diplomatic and political steps in order to cope with the thieving Jews. And in the past he has announced that Israel will remain forever.

What kind of leader is this?!?!?! Can anything be better than this for the Jews?? He is faithful to them, believes in their entity and surrenders Palestine to them for free with the height of generosity, as if it is his private property that he inherited from his father the Bahai, Rida Abbas Mirza. If he had the conscience of the tortured, oppressed Palestinian people, who have the legitimate and historical rights to Palestine, if he was really a Palestinian from Safed, if he was a Muslim, he would not have been able emotionally to make these declarations, even as a political ploy...

O Mahmoud Mirza, Palestine does not belong to you, nor to your father or grandfather, you are not from Palestine and you do not belong to the religion of its owners and therefore you cannot give it away to the Jews as a gift as your previous master, the foreign minister of Britain, Balfour, did in 1917, when he gave what was not his to those who have no right even to the size of a seed of the land of Palestine.

O, Abbas Mirza, Palestine belongs to us, the Muslims, who declare the unity of the Master of the universe, because we inherited it from our fathers and grandfathers even before there were Muslims... Allah stated in several passages of the Qur'an that no one will surrender it in the future because he - Who knows all hidden things - knew that the Islamic nation will undergo a dangerous phase of great weakness and a terrible void regarding both leadership and politics as it has been since the fall of the Ottoman state, the last Islamic state, and as a result of this, Jews will rule over Palestine and people such as you will steal into the nation in order to dismantle it and surrender it to the Jews.

O, Mahmoud Rida Abbas Mirza, Palestine is the property of the grandchildren of the companions of the prophet Muhammad who conquered it; it belongs to Umar bin al-Khattab (the second caliph who conquered Palestine in 637, M.K.)... It is Islam that liberated Palestine from the Byzantines, and Islam rescued it from the Tatars and the Mongols, and liberated it from the Jews, because the faithful, righteous, Muslims who wage jihad for Allah are the ones who liberated it from you and from the Jews. Behold, they are coming, so don't rejoice, you and your masters, the Jews.

Now a dark period reigns because of a summer cloud that soon will dissipate. The Jews, and you are one of them, know the truth, that they have not taken Palestine from the Palestinian people because of their heroism and courage but rather because of an international plot of many participants, a plot with many resources at its disposal in the leadership of Great Britain and because of the betrayal of the Arab countries at the historical moment when the nation was in its weakest state.

O Mahmoud Abbas Mirza, behold the nation which has begun to heal, to awaken and to stand on its feet. Do not be fooled by the temporary quiet of the Palestinian people because this is the calm before the storm of rage and a frenzied volcano. For these hundred years this people has been in a state of struggle with the entity that is alien to blessed Palestine, it has not surrendered and has not raised the white flag. However much you and your Jewish masters oppress us, the Palestinian people will not surrender, will not wave the white flag, and will not cease to struggle except after this entity will be eliminated from reality and after our holy land will be cleansed from its corruption.

Palestine belongs to us from Rosh Hanikra in the north to Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat, M.K.) in the south, from the Jordan River in the East to the Mediterranean Sea in the West. We will return to her one day and if Allah wills, that day will be soon. We will burst upon the land from the four corners of the heavens and we will conquer it while praising and exalting Allah, just as we entered her the first time under the command of Umar bin al-Khattab... and we will liberate her like Salah-a-din al-Ayubi liberated her from the crusaders (towards the end of the 12th century, M.K.)...

We say to you, O Mirza, "No", a thousand million times: "No", the Jewish entity will not remain in our land, in the blessed land of Islam, and it is walking toward oblivion despite your anger, the anger of the Jews, the anger of the East, the anger of the West and the anger of all the traitors. The day will come when the call for the prayer of victory will be sounded from the minarets of the mosque of al-Jazzar in Acre, the mosque of Hasan Beck in Jaffa, the mosque of al-Istiqlal in Haifa, the great mosque of Safed, and the other mosques of Safed: the red mosque, the mosque of al-Saraya and the mosque of al-Yunsi. This eternal call will join the call of the prophet Muhammad and his companions in the victorious battles of Badr (623 CE), in Yarmouk (636), in al-Qadasiya (635), in Hattin (1187) and in Constantinople (1453).

O Abbas Mirza, this entity is a totally alien body in the region, ideologically, philosophically and culturally just like you are, and the Palestinian people and all Muslims will continue forever to refuse to accept it just like they refuse to accept you and they will vomit it out just as they will vomit you out until you will be totally lost like the alien crusader entity was thrown out after two hundred years by the believers in the unity of the Master of the world. This is what our Master promised us, and you are headed for the trash heap of history.

We say to you, O Mahmoud Rida Abbas Mizra, "Abu Mazen": who are you to surrender the blessed land of Palestine, and if you wish to surrender the blessed land of Palestine, the land of Islam, you must collect the signatures of all the Muslims, the living as well as the dead, since Islam came to the world, because Palestine belongs to all of the Muslims, the living and the dead, for these 1400 years. It is not your private property so you cannot give it to your Jewish lovers and masters, while totally debasing the Palestinian people and all of the Muslims.

Go, Abbas, and leave us, because Palestine, from the river to the sea is ours, go and leave us because we will not exchange Palestine except for Paradise, we do not want to surrender our homeland, we return to it, O Palestine, from every state and land, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar and may Allah be praised.

This concludes the main content of al-Tamimi's words. It is important to note several points regarding this article:

1. As of the writing of these lines, the article is in more than twenty two thousand Internet pages, which reflects the popularity of the content.

2. The article does not mention "Israel" and "Zionists", but rather only "the Jews", which emphasizes the religious aspect of the conflict with Israel. The writer does not differentiate between Jews who live in Israel and those who live in any other place in the world.

3. Al-Tamimi's claim - that Mahmoud Abbas is not an Arab but of Iranian origin and is not Muslim but Bahai and therefore a heretic to Islam - is not new. His supporters refute this very energetically, and his detractors bring it up every time he says or does something they don't agree with. This claim is intended to undermine the legitimacy of Abbas to rule or to surrender what they see as their historical inheritance, which they received from Him who dwells on high.

4. The attitude that is expressed in this article must be made clear to all those who think that the conflict between Israel and her neighbors is territorial, national or political, because the basis for this conflict is religious, between the Muslims and the Jews, between what Muslims see as "Din al-Haq" - the religion of truth which is Islam, and what they call "din al-Batel" - a religion of falsehood, which is Judaism. Incidentally, Christianity is also a religion of falsehood according to their point of view.

5. The spokesman of the Bahai community in Israel contacted me after the article was published and asked me to add the following:

The rumor that Mahmoud Abbas is
Bahai is well known and has been disseminatedby his
opponents for several years. According to the Bahai community he is not a Bahai, has never
had any connection with the Bahai community, and those who propagate
this false allegation do so in order to undermine his Islamic credibility.

Whoever ignores the religious basis of the conflict misses the root of the problem and therefore will not be able to arrive at the correct solution.

The solution to the problem that Islam has with Judaism is by means of a mechanism of "temporary peace" that Islam can give to an illegitimate but strong state which it cannot defeat, a temporary peace that can survive forever, as long as this state is strong and invincible.

Only religious authorities can arrive at a religious solution to the conflict between Israel and her neighbors, because only they have the legitimacy to cope with religious arguments like those of al-Tamimi. Only religious Muslim leaders have the authority to decide when "al-Masalha" - the overall interest - obligates the Muslims to come to an agreement with invincible infidels. This is no simple matter, but possible, and throughout the history of Islam there have been not a few instances when those with religious authority have reluctantly found creative solutions to religious-based issues. The conflict between Israel and the Islamic world is no different in its basic character from other instances.

Because of people like Tamimi and the tens of thousands who have similar attitudes, Israel must continually be perceived as an invincible state. Only thus will she win a peace, temporary but unlimited in time, which will win the seal of approval from the religious people of Islam, such as al-Tamimi.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar (Mordechai.Kedar@biu.ac.il) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic and Islam, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. He specializes in Islamic ideology and movements, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.

Translated from Hebrew by Sally Zahav with the permission of the author.

Source: The article is published in the framework of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. Also published in Makor Rishon, a Hebrew weekly newspaper.

Ahmad
Al-Ja'bari was born in 1960 in the Al-Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza, to a
Palestinian family from Hebron. As a young man he was a member of Fatah, and in
1982-1995 he served a 13-year prison sentence for his activity in this
organization. After meeting Hamas leaders in prison, he underwent an
ideological reversal and joined Hamas. Following his release he was active in
the movement's department for prisoner affairs, and later he assumed a
prominent position in the Hamas-founded political party Al-Khalas Al-Islami.

Arrested
by the PA authorities in 1998 for involvement in military activity, he again
spent two years in prison, where he formed close ties with Hamas explosives
expert 'Adnan Al-Ghoul. After Saleh Shehade, the founder of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam
Brigades (Hamas's military wing), was eliminated by Israel in 2002, and the Brigades'
commander, Muhammad Deif, was severely injured in an Israeli targeted attack in
2003, Al-Ja'bari became the acting commander of this force, though officially
he was its deputy commander.

Building The
Hamas Military Infrastructure

Al-Ja'bari's
main contribution to Hamas was in developing its military wing into a well-equipped regular army. Hamas
spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "He developed the Al-Qassam Brigades and laid down a real infrastructure [of this
force] in the West Bank before the PA eliminated the resistance there."[2] In
the last interview he gave before his death, he told an Egyptian TV channel:
"I am now assured regarding Hamas. I have established a powerful army, and
Allah granted me [the privilege of] concluding the Wafa Al-Ahrar deal
[i.e., the Shalit deal]."[3]

Role In The
Hamas Political Leadership

Though he was
mainly active in the organization's military wing, Al-Ja'bari gradually gained
prominence in its political leadership as well. Considered a Gaza strong man,
he was close to Hamas political bureau head Khaled Mash'al, and maintained
direct contact with him over the heads of the movement's political leadership
in Gaza. In the recent internal Hamas elections, he was elected to the
movement's political bureau in Gaza, along with several other Al-Qassam
operatives and prisoners released in the Shalit deal, which reflects his
popularity and influence in the Hamas movement.

Al-Ja'bari
Following The Shalit Deal: We Will Continue Kidnapping Soldiers

Al-Ja'bari made
few public statements and appearances, and is known mainly for his involvement
in the abduction and holding of Gilad Shalit and for conducting the indirect
negotiations with Israel for his release. He appeared briefly on television as
he escorted Shalit to the Rafah crossing.

The deal, in
which the kidnapped Israeli soldier was exchanged for 1027 prisoners, made him
well-known throughout the world. Later he said that the day of the deal's implementation
had been the happiest in his life, and promised: "The abductions of
Israeli soldiers and officers will continue as long as there are Palestinian
prisoners in the jails of the occupation."[5]

Praise For
Jihad And Resistance; Palestine From The River To The Sea

In a 2005 interview with Reuters
Al-Ja'bari said: "Jihad and resistance are the only way to liberate the
homeland, not negotiations or bargaining... Ultimately Allah will grant us victory."[6] In
a letter published at the end of Ramadan 2010, Al-Ja'bari wrote that "the
occupation army [had been] banished from Gaza forever thanks to the power of
faith, the martyrs, the weapons, the rockets, and the tunnels." He
condemned "negotiations with the Zionist enemy" and stressed
"the commitment of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades to Palestine from
the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, and to its capital, Jerusalem, all
of which is Islamic land."[7]

Expected
To Die As A Martyr

It is unclear why Ahmad
Al-Ja'bari chose to travel by car, which enabled the targeted killing, since he
was known to take strict precautions. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said:
"Al-Ja'bari dedicated his life to resistance against the occupation, which
he endorsed as [the only] option [for achieving] liberation. He was very
cautious in his movements and made sure to not appear at [public] events."[8] His
aide, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "[Al-Ja'bari] talked of
martyrdom often, but he felt the Israelis were waiting for him to complete the
[Gilad] Shalit deal."[9]

On July 4, 2006 Al-Jazeera TV broadcast
a lengthy report about Hamas's 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, which included
an interview with Ahmad Al-Ja'bari. To view MEMRI TV's translation of this clip,
visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1191.htm.

Israel
has finally struck back against the terrorist enclave of Gaza after
having 120 rockets fired at it since Saturday and over 700 this year
alone. For now, the Obama administration is rhetorically supporting Israel,
but the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt is doubling down on its
support for Hamas, Gaza’s ruling terrorist organization, and has
withdrawn its ambassador to Israel. U.S.-based Islamists and their
non-Muslim allies can be counted on in the ensuing days to pressure the
administration to throw Israel under the bus in favor of the Islamist
rulers of Egypt. If Egypt takes action, the administration will have to
choose between its relationship with Israel or its relationship with the
Muslim Brotherhood. There is no middle ground to straddle.

The Israeli Defense Forces struck 100
terrorist targets, and the Iron Dome missile defense system took out 28
rockets before they landed in Israel. The campaign began with a
precision strike on a car carrying Hamas military chief Ahmad Jabari,
the mastermind of the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Video of the strike shows it was designed to minimize civilian casualties. The IDF tweeted,
“We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior
leader, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.” Israel is
also threatening a ground operation into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas says the
initial strike “opened the gates of hell” and it will fight back. With
about 35,000 fighters, that’s no idle threat. Senior Hamas leaders say they
are considering firing long-range rockets at Rishon LeZion, a city 7
miles from Tel Aviv. They are also contemplating carrying out suicide
bombings and assassinations and are in talks with the Muslim Brotherhood
in Egypt and other Gaza-based terrorists like the Popular Resistance
Committees and Palestinian Islamic Jihad about their response. The
involvement of the latter is significant because its alliance with Iran
remains solid. The relationship between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood
and Iran has been strained because they are on opposite sides in Syria.

Egypt has withdrawn its ambassador to Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood warns that
Israel will not go unchallenged like it did during Operation Cast Lead
in 2009. It promises “swift Arab and international action to stop the
massacres”—massacres that never happened. The Brotherhood said the
situation is different now because of the Arab Spring and Egypt “will
not allow the Palestinians to be subjected to Israeli aggression, as in
the past.”

Egyptian President Morsi will be under increasing pressure to take
action and its political benefits will be tempting. The Brotherhood’s
popularity in Egypt is declining but a new poll shows that 77% of the public favor dissolving the peace treaty with Israel, up from under 25% about three years ago.

Opponents of Israel will accuse it of destroying the non-existent
peace process. On the contrary, the Israeli strikes, especially the one
on Jabari, are necessary for progress towards peace to happen. Hamas is
committed to the destruction of Israel and in September 2010, Jabari threatened to torpedo peace talks by increasing attacks. The Hamas charter even
says, “The time will not come until the Muslims will fight the Jews
(and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will
cry O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!”

The political pressure on President Obama to demand a ceasefire will
grow quickly. Anti-Israel forces on the left will make their voices
heard. Muslim-Americans were a part of the coalition that won him
re-election with over 85% voting
for him, according to a survey by the Council on American-Islamic
Relations. Anti-Israel advisors to the administration, especially those
with Islamist ties, will argue that the fighting is counter-productive.

Already, Mohamed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Committee, is tweeting that Israel’s military tactics don’t work and it must “elect a peacemaker like Sadat.”

The Islamist networks in the U.S. will use their massive
organizational capabilities to demand U.S. pressure on Israel, and
they’ll make good use of their interfaith allies.

American Muslims for Palestine, an Islamist group that meets with State Department officials, quickly condemned Israel and demanded that the U.S. cut off aid. Its statement did
not even mention the hundreds of rockets fired into Israel. It accused
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu of waging war for political gain ahead
of his country’s January 22 election. The theme echoed the Brotherhood,
which lashed out at “The Zionist war that is operating under electoral calculations for personal gain…”

The U.S.-based Islamists will undoubtedly use the American Muslims for Palestine conference on November 22-25 in Oak Brook Hills, Illinois to mobilize supporters against the Obama administration’s stance. A second blockbuster Islamist event is being held on December 21-25 in Chicago, the 11th annual
Muslim American Society-Islamic Circle of North America convention. The
power of these groups, especially when they coordinate, cannot be
discounted.

The situation will dramatically escalate if the Palestinian Authority asks the United Nations to recognize it as a nonmember observer state. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has written a draft proposal to
recognize a provisional Palestinian state with temporary borders if it
abandons this course. If it does not, a Foreign Minister position paper argues for toppling Palestinian President Abbas and dismantling the Palestinian Authority.

The Islamists in the U.S. and their anti-Israel allies are about to
move full force. President Obama said in March that the U.S. will
“always have Israel’s back.” To honor that commitment, he will have to
stand up to the Islamist network and international community. If Egypt
and the Muslim Brotherhood do indeed take action, he will have to
abandon his faulty hope of an accommodation with them.

We’ve been told to ignore the fiery rhetoric of the Muslim
Brotherhood because they are a “moderate” force. We’ve been told that
the administration is a stalwart friend of Israel. Those two
reassurances are about to be tested.Ryan MauroSource: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/muslim-brotherhood-mobilizes-for-hamas/Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Contact:
Ariella Kimmel
NGO Monitor+972-53-522-3966ariella.kimmel@ngo-monitor.org
NGO Statements on Gaza Again Reflect Political Bias, Lack of Expertise
European governments enable exploitation of human rights, int'l law with
their funding

JERUSALEM - The biased responses of human rights organizations to the recent
events in Gaza stand in sharp contrast to their prolonged silence in the
face of continuous terror attacks against Israelis civilians, said NGO
Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research organization.

"When it comes to deadly attacks against Israelis, the silence of these NGOs
is deafening, while their readiness to condemn Israel without any reliable
fact-finding is indicative of a deep anti-Israel agenda," said Professor
Gerald Steinberg, President of NGO Monitor. "Within six hours of Jabari's
death, and in the face of massive rocket attacks from Gaza, Amnesty
International blamed Israel alone for putting 'civilians in Gaza and
southern Israel at grave risk by re-igniting the armed conflict there,' and
also claimed to have 'gathered evidence that suggests' that previous Israeli
strikes 'were indiscriminate and, therefore, in violation of international
humanitarian law.' Yet, Amnesty produced no such evidence, nor does it
possess the expertise or knowledge to make these claims."

Similarly, NGO Monitor notes that an Oxfam International statement implied
that Israel was not abiding by "obligations under international law,"
asserting an immoral equivalence between deliberate terrorist attacks
launched from civilian areas and directly targeting civilians, with
necessary Israeli self-defense. Oxfam called on Israel to halt military
operations in Gaza, while offering no alternatives to protect Israel's
population.

Many other members of the NGO network have displayed the same moral failure.
For the past week, terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza intensified rocket
attacks on southern Israeli towns and cities. However, human rights NGOs,
including groups such as Gisha, funded by the New Israel Fund and European
governments, frequently condemn Israel's Gaza policies, remained silent
about these indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilians, constituting
massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law. For these political
groups, Israelis do not have human rights.

"The immediate accusations regarding alleged violations of international law
by Israel from Amnesty International, Oxfam and others, without any evidence
whatsoever, are part of the 'Durban strategy' of demonizing and isolating
Israel," continued Prof. Gerald Steinberg. "As in Jenin, Lebanon, and
previous fighting in Gaza, political advocacy NGOs distort legitimate
Israeli self-defense measures in order to advance false claims of 'war
crimes' and 'violations of human rights.'"

The European Union, as well as member governments share responsibility
through their funding of these biased NGOs. For example, the Alternative
Information Center (AIC), funded via the EU, and the governments of Sweden
and Spain, accused Israel of exploiting the violence in the south to justify
the targeting of Jabari.

Added Steinberg: "By funding these NGOs, the European governments have
become enablers of the NGOs' radical and one-sided agenda. If European
governments are truly interested in playing a role in the peace process,
funding the Durban strategy that demonizes Israel, and cynically exploits
human rights is not the way."

Within the past year, Palestinian groups fired over 800 rockets targeting
civilian populations, leaving millions of Israelis living in fear,
suspending their lives.

"Each one of these rockets constitutes a war crime," said Anne Herzberg,
legal advisor for NGO Monitor. "In the lead up to yesterday's IDF operation
in Gaza, NGOs were silent, and only after Israel responded to these
indiscriminate attacks against civilians, do they find their voice."

Added Herzberg: "The statements coming from these NGOs exhibit severe bias
and double standards and reflect a severe lack of expertise in international
law. While focusing overwhelmingly on condemning Israel, they ignore or pay
little attention to Israeli human rights and casualties. Under the façade of
morality and universality, they exploit international legal terminology. We
call on the NGOs to recall how the Goldstone report severely damaged the
credibility of these organizations, when many of their claims contained in
the report were found to be inaccurate and in some cases, complete
fabrications."

###
NGO Monitor (www.ngo-monitor.org), based in Jerusalem, was founded to
promote critical debate and accountability regarding the political
activities of non-governmental organizations claiming a human rights agenda
that are active in the Arab-Israel conflict. NGO Monitor's independent
research reports and analysis are quoted frequently in the press, academic
publications, by NGO officials and donors, and in governmental and
parliamentary discussions.

The
potential for this operation by the IDF to lose containment and involve
the Egyptians and their Islamist government in hostilities cannot be
ruled out. But so far, President Morsi is restricting his response to
angry denunciations and calls for an emergency meeting of the Security
Council.Washington Post:

Israeli
jets and drones hit dozens of targets overnight in an intense air
campaign against militant targets in the Gaza Strip the day after a
missile strike killed the Hamas military chief in an operation that
raised the specter of an all-out conflict.Israeli
officials said Wednesday's attacks were aimed at crippling the
military capabilities of Gaza-based militants who fire rockets into
southern Israel and warned that it could evolve into a ground
operation.ut
the barrage of rockets fired from Gaza continued unabated. Three
Israelis were killed early Thursday when a rocket struck an apartment
building in Kiryat Malakhi in southern Israel, Israeli police said.A
spokesman for the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qedra,
said eight Palestinians had been killed, including two children and
four other civilians.Residents
in Gaza said militants have begun firing rockets at Israeli targets
from inside teeming Gaza city, making direct Israeli strikes on the
populous city likely."We
are at the start of the event and not at its end," said Defense
Minister Ehud Barak, pledging to do "whatever is necessary to restore
quiet to the south."Representatives
of Hamas, which Israel and the United States consider a terrorist
organization, said they also have no intention of backing down. The
assassination of Ahmed al-Jabari, the Hamas military commander, "is a
serious crime, and they crossed the red line," said Fawzi Barhoum, a
Hamas spokesman. "It's time to declare war."Egypt's
Islamist-led government also condemned Jabari's assassination, and
announced the withdrawal of its ambassador to Israel.[...]Israeli
jets and drones hit dozens of targets throughout the Mediterranean
enclave early Thursday, including munitions warehouses and residential
buildings that the military said operated as warehouses. The military
said it targeted more than 100 long- and medium- range rocket launching
sites and several launch squads overnight, doing "significant" damage
to stockpiles that include Iran-supplied Fajr-5 missiles.If
drawn out, the Israeli campaign could paralyze the crowded Hamas-ruled
Gaza Strip, trigger barrages of retaliatory attacks from the
organization and its regional allies, and upend already cool relations
between Israel and Egypt.

Tensions
are already high between Israel and Iran, and it wouldn't be outside
the realm of the possible for Tehran's proxy terrorist group Hezb'allah
to launch some rockets of their own. But both Iran and Egypt have
massive problems of their own to deal with and a war with Israel would
only exacerbate their economic weakness.

An
IDF spokesman has indicated that this is only the beginning of the
operation. A ground assault into Gaza is possible, but apparently not
imminent. We shall see what the next 48 hours brings.Rick MoranSource: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/11/three_israelis_killed_by_hamas_rockets_as_idf_hits_dozens_of_gaza_targets.htmlCopyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The
Allen West re-election campaign is raising questions about the very odd
behavior of the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections, Gertrude
Walker. Rep. West carried the other two counties in his district, but
"lost" St. Lucie County. The campaign's official website writes:

West
for Congress released this statement regarding the growing
inconsistencies and continued obfuscation coming from St. Lucie County
Board of Supervisors, Gertrude Walker, regarding the election results.

"Last
night during a press conference, the Supervisor announced her office
had determined that approximately 3,650 ballots were double-counted on
election night, and approximately 1,950 ballots were not counted at all,
with all ballots coming from the last three days of early voting -
which is what was retabulated on Sunday. However, if this information is
accurate, the total vote in the county should have decreased by 1,700
votes after the Sunday retabulation. Instead the total votes cast
declined by 799. It simply does not add up.

In
addition, according to news reports, the Supervisor of Elections
announced her office re-ran some 26,000 ballots from early voting. This
would account for the first 6 days of the 8 days of early voting.
However, on election night, the campaign staff was told there was a
problem with the first 3 days of voting, which would involve
approximately 13,000 ballots based on information uploaded to the
Division of Elections. What is the truth?

Finally,
during the same press conference, the Supervisor announced there were
some "blank" memory cards involved. If these "blank" memory cards were
in reference to the election night decision to retabulate 26,000
ballots, then the cards processed on the first 5 days of early voting
have been processed twice, the ballots on day 6 have been processed
three times, and of the ballots on the last two days, some have been
processed twice and some only once. Whether this resulted through
mechanical malfunction, negligence or willful action, the voters of St.
Lucie County deserve to know their votes have been fairly counted.

Towards
that end, we are pleased Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner has
decided to send auditors to St. Lucie County to examine the returns and
the ballot-counting process, and we have detailed our concerns to him in
a letter today.

The
West campaign is simply seeking the truth, and an accurate count of
votes. Given the inconsistencies emanating from the Supervisor's office,
we have no confidence in any of the information regarding the votes
counted or the election results overall."

Apart from the presumed public
relations gains to be amassed by "sticking it to Israel," according to a
2011 report Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Hamas reaps over
half a billion dollars a year from tariffs on the Egypt-Gaza tunnel
trade. It is therefore in Hamas's best interest to keep the blockade
idea alive, in order to secure larger revenues for its Gaza government,
all the while demonizing Israel and causing Gaza's residents to suffer,
thereby making them even more dependent on Hamas.

A photo of the "Prime Minister" of Hamas's government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, buying Israeli grapes in Gaza, with a boy standing next to him enjoying a bag of Israeli chips has been circulating online among Palestinians.

The photo is an example of the hypocrisy of the senior Hamas leader,
as his group and its sympathizers in the West and in Muslim countries
have been advocating a universal boycott of Israeli products. The photo
of Haniyeh buying Israeli grapes also ridicules those across the world
claiming that people in Gaza are starving to death under a "terrifying"
Israeli siege. An Israeli siege, in fact, might be exactly what Hamas's
leaders want to bring about, both to try to hurt Israel economically and
at the same time to gain global political and financial support for
themselves while Gazans are suffering under Hamas's rule.

Before Haniyeh's picture became an internet sensation -- distributed
by Palestinians over social websites such as Facebook -- just this past
August, former PA security chief Muhammad Dahlan said that Gaza was "not under siege,"
and that its residents were "not lacking anything." Dahlan was expelled
from Fatah in 2011 following a dispute with PA president Mahmoud Abbas,
a circumstance which possibly gives him more freedom to speak his mind.

Dahlan is not alone in his assessment. In July 2010, Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu Al-Houl wrote
in Al-Ahram (Egypt's most prominent newspaper) that "in actual terms"
Gaza is not under siege. He further noted that stores were "flowing with
goods" at "low prices." Abu Al-Houl went as far as detailing the
thriving entertainment and amusement parks industry in Gaza.

Still, in the global media, the notion of Gaza being under an
"inhumane" Israeli siege is alive and well. Weeks after Dahlan's
statement, the United Nations released a report stating that "[t]he
situation in the Palestinian enclave has reached a critical point. If no
action is taken, by 2020, Gaza will become uninhabitable" -- noting
that Israel is to blame for the conditions in Gaza.

Ironically, throughout all of the alleged Israeli siege on Gaza,
Israel has consistently been providing Gazans water and power supplies,
which Israel threatened to cut in 2011 if Palestinian Authority pursued reunification with Hamas -- a threat which Israel never carried out.

Moreover, numbers
speak for themselves: in March 2012, the same month when 300 Hamas
rockets were fired from Gaza at Israeli towns, 3,653 truckloads of goods
were delivered from Israel to Gaza and 1,375 Gazan patients and
companions entered or passed through Israel for medical treatments,
followed by another 1,364 in April, 2012.

In August 2012, the Hamas prime minister's brother in law was allowed to enter Israel for treatment in an Israeli hospital.

This is the same Haniyeh who visited Tunis in 2011 by invitation from
its Islamist-dominated parliament and told the welcoming crowd, "We
shall not relinquish Palestine," to which the crowd chanted: "Killing Jews is A Duty".

So, if Israel has never stopped humanitarian supplies to Gaza and
does not enforce the alleged blockade of humanitarian supplies on Gaza,
why does Hamas insist on promoting the blockade's myth and even
provoking Israel whenever possible by rocket attacks such as the most
recent ones?

To understand Hamas's motives, apart from the presumed public
relations gains to be amassed by "sticking it to Israel," it might help
to know that the Washington Institute for Near East Policy released a
report in 2011 stating that the estimated tunnel trade between Gaza and
Egypt had "likely peaked at around $600-850 million per year," and noted
that Hamas takes a hefty cut from the Egyptian tunnel trade, "imposing
high 'customs' duties and a daily fee on local tunnel contractors."
According to the report, the tunnel trade had been dramatically reduced
since June 2010, when Israel quadrupled the number of trucks permitted
to bring goods to Gaza through legal terminals. It is therefore in
Hamas's best interest to keep the blockade alive to secure larger
revenues for its Gaza government, all the while demonizing Israel and
causing Gaza's residents to suffer, thereby making them even more
dependent on Hamas.

At the same time, Hamas manages to get the world's sympathy in the
name of the blockade, as well as the world's cash: Qatar, for example,
recently allocated $400 million as aid money for Gaza. Of course, how
decent Hamas will be at handling those funds is anyone's guess.

It is Hamas, not Israel, which is besieging Gaza. Those who claim to
be concerned about the Palestinians in Gaza would actually do more good
for these fine people if they stopped attacking Israel and instead
switched their focus to addressing the true source of the Gazans'
poverty, suffering and oppression: Hamas.Mudar ZahranSource: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3453/besieging-gazaCopyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

This radicalization — to a point
where they are not ready to hear about any concessions to Israel — is
the direct result of decades of anti-Israel incitement and
indoctrination, spearheaded, ironically, by the "moderate" Palestinian
Authority leadership that is publicly talking about making peace with
Israel.

Today there is almost no room for moderates among the Palestinians.

Any Palestinian who dares to talk about compromise and peace with
Israel, or even meet with Israelis, is immediately denounced as a
"traitor" and "defeatist."

Take, for example, the most recent case of Munib al-Masri, a wealthy
Palestinian businessman from Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank.

Known as the "Palestinian Rothschild," al-Masri has drawn strong
condemnations from many Palestinians for hosting Israeli businessman
Rami Levy at his home.

Even Palestinian journalists have joined the campaign against
al-Masri. Some 70 journalists signed a petition calling on the
Palestinian media to stop calling calling al-Masri's palace by its name
"The House of Palestine."

Inspired by Andrea Palladio, the most influential individual in the
history of Western architecture, The "House of Palestine" is the most
expensive palace in the West Bank.

It was in this palace that al-Masri met with Levy and Palestinian,
Arab, Islamic, UN and EU representatives to find ways to "break the
stalemate" in the Middle East peace process.

The main purpose of the gathering was to "create an
Arab-Islamic-Jewish alliance to impact decision-makers by launching an
initiative to break the stalemate," according to a statement issued by
al-Masri.

Palestinians representing various political groups have since
condemned al-Masri for promoting "normalization" with Israel by inviting
an Israeli businessman to the meeting in his palace.

The widespread condemnations forced al-Masri to issue a
"clarification" in which he reassured Palestinians that he was "totally
opposed to any economic relations with Israeli businessmen as long as
Israel continued to occupy the 1967 territories."

The "clarification" is yet another sign of how moderate Palestinians succumb to threats and calls for boycott.

A few days later, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas underwent the same experience.

In an interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV station, Abbas stated that
he did not want to return to his birthplace of Safed [in northern
Israel], triggering an unprecedented wave of denunciations from many
Palestinians who accused him of relinquishing the Palestinian refugees'
"right of return" to their former villages inside Israel.

Like al-Masri, Abbas later reassured Palestinians that he remained
"committed to the right of return" and that he would never compromise on
the rights of the refugees.

Obviously, the Palestinians have been radicalized to a point where
they are not ready to hear about any concessions to Israel or tolerate
the presence of an Israeli businessman in a Palestinian city. This
radicalization is the direct result of decades of anti-Israel incitement
and indoctrination in the Palestinian territories -- a campaign that
has been spearheaded, ironically, by the "moderate" Palestinian
Authority leadership that is publicly talking about making peace with
Israel.Khaled Abu ToamehSource: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3451/moderate-palestinians-threatsCopyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and International treaties define crimes against humanity as the "participation in, and knowledge of, a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, and the multiple commissions of [such] acts ... against any civilian population."

These international binding instruments go-on to impose uniform mandatory counter-terrorist obligations on all states to "bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers, and sponsors of terrorist attacks and stresses that those responsible for aiding, supporting or harboring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these acts will be held accountable.

There
is no escape clause - UNSC repeats "its unequivocal condemnation of all
acts, methods and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable,
regardless of their motivation, in all their forms and manifestations, wherever and by whomever committed."
Terrorist organizations such as Hamas that kidnap Israelis, blow up and
destroy public buses, murder young people at cafés and discos, and
school outings, alongside indiscriminate around-the-clock shelling of
hundreds of Katyusha, Qassam, and Grad rockets targeting civilian
populations in Israel, are clearly committing Crimes Against Humanity -
acts of terrorism for which the UNSC under Chapter VII of the UN
Charter directs everyone to fight terrorism by all means.

International law leaves no room to question Israel's right to defend its citizens against systematic and sustained terrorist attacks launched from Gaza, by Hamas. Israel's
reaction to aggression is nothing more than a measured, fair response
designed “to effectively terminate the attack [s]” upon it by terrorists
supported by Iran, Syria, and
Lebanon, in order to “prevent its recurrence.” Israel is far from using all means in fighting terrorism, as required by UNSC.

What happens when the cameras turn up at the scene of an airstrike in Gaza and there simply aren’t enough Palestinian dead and injured to produce dramatic footage that can be used against Israel in the international media? We’ve seen it before. Palestinians who appear to be injured or even dead for the benefit of the TV cameras turn out to be nothing of the sort once they are no longer the focus.

This is all the more so in Gaza, where Palestinian stringers are often filming in the absence of international news crews.

The example below is taken from a BBC interview on the targeted killing of Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari. During the interview (full version here), footage from Gaza is shown. At 2:11 mins in, a Palestinian in a beige jacket and black T-shirt, presumably injured in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike, is picked up and taken away. Yet at 2:44 mins, the same Palestinian has staged a remarkable recovery.